The doctrine
that though union with a reason and righteousness not exclusively our
own each of us may hourly be renewed is the very heart of ethics.
XIII
I have attempted to cut out a clear path through an ethical jungle
overgrown with the exuberance of human life. I have not succeeded, and
it is probably impossible to succeed. In the subject itself there is
paradox. Conflicting elements enter into the very constitution of a
person. To trace them even imperfectly one must be patient of
refinements, accessible to qualifications, and ever ready to admit the
opposite of what has been laboriously established. We all desire
through study to win a swift simplicity. But nature abhors simplicity:
she complicates; she forces those who would know to take pains, to
proceed cautiously, and to feel their way along from point to point.
This I have tried to do; and I believe that the inquiry, though
intricate, primarily scientific, and only partially successful, need
not altogether lack practical consequence. Our age is bewildered
between heroism and greed. To each it is drawn more powerfully than
any age preceding. Neither of the two does it quite comprehend. If we
can render the nobler somewhat more intelligible, we may increase the
confidence of those who now, half-ashamed, follow its glorious but
blindly compulsive call.
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